“And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was” (John 7:5).
One of the fruits of Christ’s ascension is that today He is our advocate in heaven before the face of His and our Father. Being our advocate He intercedes for us before the Father in heaven. He is able to do this on the ground of His completed work.
He was not able to intercede for us before His ascension. At that time, He had not yet been glorified by His Father.
Christ prayed for that glorification while doing His work on earth in humiliation.
Then, just before His final suffering, He prayed the words of His high-priestly prayer: “I have glorified You on the earth, I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Me…” (John 17:4, 5).
Well now, God the Father did glorify His Son. He took Him up into heaven in the glory the Son had before coming into the flesh.
With that, the Father said to the Son: “You have completed your work of reconciliation.” And on the basis of that completed work the Son now has the right to make His request to the Father – His request for us, for those for whom He suffered and died in complete obedience. And on the basis of that obedience, the Father will not refuse Him.
The things we may ask from God the Father as mercy, Christ is allowed to ask as His right. He obtained that right through His work of atonement on earth, and received that right at His ascension.
In this way Christ places all our imperfect prayers, which He has purified from all foolish and sinful questions, as justified demands before the Father.
And so we may pray to our Father in heaven for the fulfilment of all the many great and small things that are necessary for our lives to develop to the honour of God.
We may ask for the intercession of our Mediator.
With Him, our advocate, our case is in good hands.
And the Father will glorify the Son and hear our prayers.
by Rev L Douw, in Joh Francke (ed), translated from De Unieke Troost (Your Only Comfort), Boersma, Enschede, 1971.